APT Championship in Taipei: $5M guaranteed and poker festival from 13 to 29 November

The APT Championship confirms its return to Red Space in Taipei, Taiwan, from 13 to 29 November 2026 with a festival that includes the $10K Main Event scheduled for 20–27 November and a guarantee of $5 million for that tournament. The organisers also decided the Main Event will be a freezeout; the 2025 edition exceeded the guarantee and reached more than $6.1 million, with Nishant Sharma of India taking home over $1 million after outlasting a field of 671 entries.

Why the APT Championship was designed around a big Main Event

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) conceived the Championship as the culmination of its season and the centrepiece of its 20th anniversary. The tour began in Singapore in 2006 and, after changes of ownership and management that launched the so-called 'New Era' in 2023, the APT has seen attendance and prize pools grow. When the new leadership set its roadmap in 2023, the APT Championship was already positioned as a central objective: to create "Asia’s Main Event" able to compare with the major poker titles in the United States, including the $10K WSOP Main Event.

The organisational bet was deliberate and risky: guaranteeing $5M and making the tournament a freezeout with no re-entries or rebuys. The freezeout format equalises conditions between backed professionals, wealthy recreational players, satellite winners and online qualifiers: once you lose your chips, your participation ends.

Outcome of the experiment in 2025 and key figures

The inaugural Championship under this format produced concrete results. The $5M guarantee was exceeded and the Main Event prize pool finished at more than $6.1M, with 671 entries in the Main Event. The winner was Nishant Sharma (India), who received more than $1 million. Other figures provided by the organisers for the 2025 series were:

• Festival entries: 28,000+

• Total prizepools: $34M+

• Main Event prizepool: $6.2M (approximate figure reported alongside the $6.1M figure)

• Main Event 1st place: $1.2M (attributed in coverage to Nishant Sharma)

• Main Event entries: 671

• 208 other events (figure listed in the summary)

• 209 different events on the schedule (figure listed in the programme)

The source article records both "208 other events" and "209 different events on the schedule"; both figures appear in the festival documentation.

"The APT chose to guarantee $5 million and play a Main Event freezeout," according to the tournament chronicle.

Schedule: variants and formats for every type of player

The APT Championship is broad by design: from 13 to 29 November there will be more than two hundred tournaments covering all buy-ins, variants and formats imaginable. The calendar includes official tournaments, with results published on The Hendon Mob and trophies for winners.

Major variants (dealer-run and timed events):

• Hold’em

• Omaha

• Triple draw

• Single draw

• Big O

• Courchevel

• 7-card stud

• Super stud

• Badugi

• Razz

• Double board bomb pot

Mixed tournaments and special formats:

• Octo-Razz, Triple Draw Mix, Dealer’s Choice, Big Met Mix, ROSET, 9-Game

• Freezeouts

• Re-entries

• Turbos, super-turbos and hyper-turbos

• Heads-up events

• Single-day tourneys

• Phased tourneys

• Women’s events

• Ultra and Deepstacks

• 7-Max

• Satellites

The highest buy-in event will be the Superstar Challenge at TWD 1.5M (around USD $46K), while the daily schedule offers entries from approximately $100.

Audience and atmosphere: a festival that draws international figures

The mix of formats and buy-ins attracts backed professionals, high rollers and high-profile figures as well as recreational players. The previous edition gathered names such as Erik Seidel, Dominik Nitsche and Steve O’Dwyer, as well as content creators, brand ambassadors and sponsored pros.

The chosen venue, Red Space in central Taipei, is a space dedicated exclusively to poker: there are no slot machines or casino tables to distract. That concentration of the product and the international turnout contribute to an atmosphere of competition and celebration, with constant opportunities to register, play and win.

Logistics and festival coverage

The APT Championship 2026 keeps the schedule that places the $10K Main Event between 20 and 27 November, with the freezeout structure and the $5M guarantee. Poker.org anticipates coverage from the tournament floor throughout the two weeks; the publication announced it will report action from the floor for the duration of the festival.

If you need to consult the full festival schedule and the detailed timings for each event, the organisers have published the official calendar; for practical information go to the [program of events](/events). For updates and live reports, follow coverage in the [news](/news) section.

What this means for operators and players in Asia

The APT has backed an ambitious festival product that seeks a balance between commercial appeal and sporting experience. Guaranteeing $5M in a freezeout is a mechanism to attract large fields while keeping field sizes at more "affordable" levels for regular players: in Taipei you do not have to beat 10,000 competitors to win, as happens in some larger Main Events.

In practical terms, the formula appears to work: the previous edition exceeded the guarantee, produced a multi-million dollar prize pool and delivered a seven-figure first prize to Nishant Sharma. It remains to be seen whether the format maintains that sustainability in successive editions and how attendance and the mix of international players evolve.

The Asian Poker Tour Championship is played in Taipei, Taiwan, from 13 to 29 November 2026, with the $10K Main Event from 20 to 27 November and a $5M guarantee.